Casino gaming, wagering, gambling and lottery operations are constantly changing and growing in markets around the world. Gambling operations are often carefully implemented and strictly regulated to ensure fairness of operations and to avoid fraud.
However, casino gaming and particularly lottery operations have gradually developed a static (aging) consumer base that is often sited as exploiting problem gamblers with various legislatures debating restrictions or probations being placed on casinos and lotteries. For example, “Stop Predatory Gambling”, which advocates an end to state-sponsored gambling recently stated: “State lotteries have a business model that's based on getting up to 70% to 80% of their revenue from 10% of the people that use the lottery . . . ” In Minnesota, a pending bipartisan bill would require 25% of lottery billboards to be dedicated to a warning about the odds of winning, cautions about addiction, and information on where problem gamblers can seek help.
In an attempt to diversify their base and increase sales, casinos and lotteries have come to appreciate the virtues of producing games with more entertainment value that can be sold at a premium price. For instance, ten-dollar instant lottery ticket games with higher paybacks and more ways to win now account for over $5 billion a year in United States lottery sales. But, these higher priced and high-volume games also typically add little unique entertainment value relative to lower priced instant tickets and consequently do not to attract many new consumers.
Thus, it is highly desirable to develop gaming systems methodologies that provide methods of playing new gaming opportunities, particularly more customized and interactive games. Ideally these gaming methodologies should allow for flexibility and creativity for game designers to tailor games to a wide variety of small targeted segments previously not served by existing gaming offerings, thereby appealing to a broader base of consumers.
Furthermore, it is also highly desirable to provide a gaming system that allows for secure, offline, gameplay so as to not require players to have or maintain a connection to the Internet in order to participate in gaming. Digital, interactive gaming solutions to date that are designed for personal devices such as phones, laptops and the like, require a constant connection to the Internet because all of the gaming routines reside in online servers. Gaming system providers to date have assumed that the only way to secure gaming systems in conjunction with personal computing devices is to implement all gaming software in server-based systems that include extensive physical and logical security protections.